Tis the Season... for edible gifts (1) - Wine Jelly

Christmas tools around really quick! the older one gets, the faster time flies by. Christmas here is is kinda like Chinese New Year back in Singapore. Lots of visiting, feasting, and exchange of gifts (instead of "ang pows")

This is our 3rd Christmas here and we have been recipients of many little tokens of friendship, both edible and non edible and have experienced warmth and love. So in turn, since we're not too hot in the arts and crafts department - we  decided to make edible gifts. This year it's Wine Jelly and Cinnamon Bread.

Jars filled, waiting for labels

We chose my favourite varietal - Cabernet Sauvignon and set about filling our apartment with wine fumes as the jelly cooked. We did taste a glass - quality control of course, and pronounced it good everyday drinking wine, perfect for jelly.

all nicely labelled, ready to be delivered

Hints:
First make sure you have enough jars - I often get caught out with insufficient jars because I had not factored in the volume created by dissolved sugar!
Also ensure that your pot is large enough to contain the "roiling boil" that occurs - the hot jelly liquid rises up quite a ways in the pot. A large pot will save faint hearts from angina. You may stir the boiling wine mixture with a wooden spoon to try and prevent the scalding hot jelly from overflowing.

The recipe below makes 12 x 250ml / 24 x 125ml jars of jelly

Ingredients:
1.5L Red Wine (your favourite)
1 Cup (250ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice - about 4-5 large lemons
2 pkg (2x 57g) Bernadin Fruit Pectin
9 Cups extra fine granulated sugar

Sterilise the Jars:
There are various ways of sterilizing jars - I'll detail the two that I use most often

Oven Method:
1. wash jars in hot soapy water, rinse well and place on baking tray
2. place in cold oven and bring temperature up to 110C / 225F for 30min
3. allow to cool slightly before filling (in other words, leave in oven till ready to fill)

Dishwasher method:
This is great is you have a larger quantity of jars and haven't yet washed them.
1. place jars and lids in dishwasher
2. wash at the hottest setting
3. allow to dry (use heat dry setting) before use.

Sterilise the Lids:
1. place lids in large pan
2. pour boiling water over the lids and let sit for 10min.

Method:
1. Pour wine and lemon juice into large pot - whisk in pectin till dissolved
2. Measure sugar, set aside
3. Bring wine mixture to boil
4. Add sugar to wine mixture, bring up to a railing boil and boil hard for 1min (exactly)
5. Remove from heat
6. Skim foam if necessary
7. Bottle up to 5mm of rim of jar
8. Place lids (shake off any water) onto jars (hot!)
9. Carefully place rings over lids and screw down firmly.
10 Set aside on tray to cool.

I love sitting back after all the effort and listening for the lids to go "thuk" as the lids get sucked in and seal off the jars during the cooling process. Once the jars are well sealed and cool, wipe any sticky jelly drips off the sides and label.

Wine jellies are great with cheese and crackers and they also make a fantastic glaze for roasts.

match made in heaven? wine jelly, cheese and crackers

Saving my culinary heritage... one recipe at a time This time it's Ondeh - ondeh

Delicious Plate of Jade Green Ondeh Ondeh

Whenever we move to a new country, the locals assume that because we look "chinese" therefore the food we eat must be "chinese" aka fried rice, dim sum etc... But we're not from China! We're from Singapore! Our food roots come from South East Asia - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, yes and also China, since we are ethnically chinese.

OK, enough ranting - so - we had some friends over for dinner and we decided to serve something "local" - Laska Lemak for mains. Then given a choice between making "appies" or dessert - the latter won. Now, I could easily whip up a decadent creamy sherry trifle or a sea -salt caramel apple crisp, but that wouldn't have been an appropriate sweet ending to the meal. After searching through our library of recipe books, Ondeh-ondeh came up tops. These scrumptious little balls have a lovely jade green colour and when coated with soft fragrant finely grated coconut, a mound of these on a plate look almost festive, Christmassy - like a little pine tree covered with snow.

Ondeh-ondeh (or onde-onde) are little balls of sweet potato / glutinous rice flour, filled with melted palm sugar and coated with grated coconut. They should have just enough chewiness in the dough to avoid being stodgy, yet enough"give" that when popped into the mouth and given little squish with the tongue, they pop, filling one's mouth with aromatic sweet palm sugar syrup. Mmmmmm!

There seem to be 2 distinct groups of recipes for Ondeh - Ondeh. Those that use sweet potato and hardly any glutinous rice flour and those that use only glutinous rice flour (plus a smidge of tapioca flour). The former I find too soft and not toothsome enough. The latter can be quite rubbery, especially if there is too little filling in the dumplings. After a bit of experimentation I've came up with a compromise, which I'm posting today.

The key to this recipe is to make "test balls" as the humidity, water content of the sweet potato will affect the final consistency. Don't make up a whole batch of dumplings only to find that they don't meet texture / consistency expectations once cooked.

Some of the instructions and ingredients are appropriate for cooks in places without Asian grocery stores. Fresh Screwpine leaves and grated fresh coconut is ideal when available, but Pandan flavouring paste by Koepoe Koepoe (easily bought online from Amazon.com) and desiccated coconut works well. The panda paste is intensely fragrant and dark green, so no further colouring is needed. Dark demerara sugar or muscovado sugar if you cant get hold of palm sugar or gula melaka (coconut sugar)

Pandan Paste

Ondeh-Ondeh
(makes 36 dumplings)

Ingredients:
1 medium sweet potato - white / pale fleshed is best - about 400g
1.5 Cups Glutinous rice flour
approximately 1/3 Cup water
1 tsp pandan (screwpine) essence
1/3 - 1/2 Cup finely shaved palm sugar / gula melaka (coconut palm sugar)
200g finely shredded desiccated unsweetened coconut
1/2 tsp fine / table salt

Rehydrating Desiccated Coconut:
Mix the desiccated coconut with salt, spread on a 9inch pie dish and steam over boiling water for 10minutes. Let cool completely before use.

Make the dough:
1. peel and cut the sweet potato into 1cm cubes
2. steam / microwave for 5min till cooked and soft.
3. mash (and sieve if you are really finicky) and let cool completely
4. mix in the glutinous rice flour, panda essence and enough water to make a dough that has the consistency of plasticine or "playdoh"
5. Cover with cling film to prevent the dough from drying up

Making a well in the dough

Cook the dumplings:
1. Bring a pot of water (about 1.5L) to boil and keep simmering on low heat
2. Make batches of dumplings - about 10 at a time
3. Pinch off enough dough to make small round balls of dough about 2.5-3cm diameter
4. Use a finger to make an impression in the ball and work the dough to create a little well for the sugar. With practice, the wall of dough becomes really thin ideally about 2-3mm thick and leave room for lots of sugar !
5. Carefully place 1/2 tsp sugar into the well and close the dough over it, gently roll the ball in your hands and set aside. Repeat process till you have 10 little filled dough balls
6. Gently lower the balls one at a time into the simmering water (they will sink)
7. Once the dough balls are cooked, they will float
8. Remove the balls from the water with a skimmer / tea strainer / slotted spoon
9. Set aside on a non stick mat / baking sheet to drain briefly
10. Transfer to the pie dish with rehydrated coconut and roll to fully coat.
11. Set aside and repeat steps 3-10 till all the dough is used up

When dough is cooked, the balls will float 

Roll cooked balls in coconut

Dumplings are best eaten at room temperature - they will keep, covered in the 'fridge for a day or two, but let them come to room temp before eating. When eaten warm, they tend to be too soft.

Coconut sugar oozing out...

Enjoy... keep lots of Kleenex handy to catch drips! Mmmmmmm....

Campagnolo Roma

I have not been to Vancouver for a while.  So when I had to come to Vancouver for work, I was determined to eat good food!

I was watching Guy Fieri on Diners, Drive-ins & Dives the day before I flew to Vancouver.  He went to an Italian pizza place in Manhattan called Don Antonio by Starita.  The pizzas looked good.  I was inspired.  Well, I am sure Vancouver has a restaurant that serves good pizza.  I did some research and found Campagnolo Roma.

My foodie partner-in-crime and I arrived after 7.00pm.  There were two guys ahead of us.  I like the fact that Campagnolo Roma is a walk-in restaurant - no reservations unless it is a big group.  It was full.  There was a table outside with complimentary fleece blanket if we wanted it but we decided to wait for a table in the restaurant.  We left our names with one of the very enthusiastic and friendly female staff, and waited for slightly over 15 minutes before she sat us by the window.

We decided to share a Verdissima pizza - charred scallions, spinach, garlic, grano padano and basil, and  the Tagliatelle cooked with milk braised pork hock ragu, rapine, pecorino and rue.  The female staff said both of these were her favourite.  We invited her to pull a chair and come join us.  Alas, she had to work.

Delizioso they were!  I love the thin crust pizza, and the toppings were very unusual.  What was more unusual was the pizza spice that she brought in a small plate.  That pizza spice rocks!  We added it into our pizza and pasta.  The Tagliatelle was well seasoned and pork hock, tender.  I am sure it would have been better if the pasta arrived hot and not just warm.

Verdissima 

Tagliatelle

Pizza spice

The total bill came up to CAD90 including a carafe of Altesino, a Cappucino and 15% tip.  I would definitely come back for great food, great service & lively ambience.

Campagnolo Roma
2297 E Hastings St,
Vancouver, BC V5L 1V2